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Author Topic: KSFB has been Plugged!  (Read 281195 times)

Offline Biff

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KSFB has been Plugged!
« on: October 22, 2010, 06:34:47 PM »
The KSFB feed is now running off of one of these:



That's a Sheevaplug - a little $99 linux server.  It's the size of a wall wart and only pulls about 5 watts of electricity.  With only my feed running on it it's averaging about 18% CPU usage.

You can read more about it here.



Offline smeuse

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Re: KSFB has been Plugged!
« Reply #1 on: October 22, 2010, 11:04:56 PM »
Very cool!

Two questions:

1. What linux distro are you using with it?

2. What USB (i assume) sound card are you using?

-Steve

Offline Biff

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Re: KSFB has been Plugged!
« Reply #2 on: October 23, 2010, 12:06:04 AM »
I put debian on it, 2.6 kernel.

For audio I'm using one of these:




I tried one of the type pictured below also, but the sound quality was absolutely atrocious.



So yes, there really is a difference between a $3 cheap audio adapter, and a $1 cheap audio adapter.  :)

Offline smeuse

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Re: KSFB has been Plugged!
« Reply #3 on: October 23, 2010, 08:38:34 AM »

I had to do a double-take on the price of the USB audio adapter.

$2.82!!!

That's less than a gallon of milk these days!


Offline MikeNYC

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Re: KSFB has been Plugged!
« Reply #4 on: October 26, 2010, 09:05:30 PM »
I've been wondering about using a SheevaPlug for a LiveATC site! Seems like a great idea. Are there any reasonably priced small USB scanners out there? I've seen the Icom PCR series, and the WinRadio as well. They're all very expensive. I might be able to get a feed somewhere if there was a small (SheevaPlug) solution that could be entirely remotely controlled, to add/drop frequencies etc.

Can you share any more information?

Offline Biff

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Re: KSFB has been Plugged!
« Reply #5 on: October 26, 2010, 10:17:06 PM »
Sorry, I can't help you with info about any USB scanners.  My feed is running on a Sony Wavehawk hand-held that's plugged into that USB audio adapter.  I do have a Bearcat scanner that can be controlled via USB->serial adapter, but I've never tried it under linux.  That sounds like a good project though.

Gotta say I'm loving this plug.  :)


 

Offline Fra

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Re: KSFB has been Plugged!
« Reply #6 on: November 07, 2010, 08:36:42 AM »
Now this is cool!

Can you tell me how you managed to install a full linux distro on it? How do you control it? Do you have any graphic output by remote client like VNC or teamviewer?

If you can, please show us some screenshots of the actual software. I was thinking of getting one of these but I thought you could only use them as cloud servers.

Imagine all the watts you will save...typical PC uses from 250 to 500 watts of power...Mine is a thin client and uses 90. Imagine this with only 5!

Offline Biff

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Re: KSFB has been Plugged!
« Reply #7 on: November 08, 2010, 10:05:36 AM »
Yea, I'm loving it. 

It comes with debain already installed, but you can fairly easily install new distros.  Check out http://plugcomputer.org for tons of info and support.  In fact, in order to get USB audio to work you do need a different kernel than the one mine shipped with.  But it literally takes less than 60 seconds to install a new kernel (pre-built).

I don't have a graphic UI installed on it, but I don't see why you couldn't.  You have minimal RAM and storage space to work with, so that may limit you.  I simply SSH into it and manage it via command line.  Not very sexy screenshots I'm afraid.  :)


Offline Fra

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Re: KSFB has been Plugged!
« Reply #8 on: November 08, 2010, 02:30:01 PM »
I see.

How did you install and configure the OddCast then? With terminal commands?

Offline Biff

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Re: KSFB has been Plugged!
« Reply #9 on: November 08, 2010, 03:10:37 PM »
Yes, but we use darkice instead of oddcast on linux.

# apt-get install darkice

Then edit the config and fire it up.  :)   There's also a matter of creating the init script, but that's a piece of cake too since Dave's already done all the work on that.

Offline Biff

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Re: KSFB has been Plugged!
« Reply #10 on: November 17, 2010, 10:31:39 PM »
Running like a champ. :)

Code: [Select]
# uptime
 22:28:56 up 26 days,  5:18,  1 user,  load average: 0.94, 0.97, 0.91


Offline bmmart0171

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Re: KSFB has been Plugged!
« Reply #11 on: March 13, 2011, 10:15:44 AM »
Whats the word for getting orlando approach on 121.1 on live atc? 

Offline dave

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Re: KSFB has been Plugged!
« Reply #12 on: March 15, 2011, 03:42:43 PM »
Whats the word for getting orlando approach on 121.1 on live atc? 

Right now we don't have a provider close enough to MCO - if someone in range of MCO sees this and might be willing to help, please contact me.

Dave

Offline Darrell

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Re: KSFB has been Plugged!
« Reply #13 on: March 18, 2011, 07:43:11 AM »
Yea, I'm loving it. 

It comes with debain already installed, but you can fairly easily install new distros.  Check out http://plugcomputer.org for tons of info and support.  In fact, in order to get USB audio to work you do need a different kernel than the one mine shipped with.  But it literally takes less than 60 seconds to install a new kernel (pre-built).




What kernel did you download to rebuild it?

Offline Biff

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Re: KSFB has been Plugged!
« Reply #14 on: March 20, 2011, 12:17:32 PM »
I put 2.6.35.7 on it, which was the latest at the time. 

The most important thing is finding a compatible USB audio adapter. 

Re: KSFB has been Plugged!
« Reply #15 on: March 22, 2011, 12:44:37 AM »
I was so inspired by this i just picked up 3 to run my feeds. what a great little set up can't wait for them to arrive in the mail... also got the same sound card you are using so that i know it will work with no messing around.

Offline Biff

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Re: KSFB has been Plugged!
« Reply #16 on: March 22, 2011, 09:29:10 AM »
Awesome!

Mine's only been rebooted once in the last 5 or 6 months - and that's because I had to physically move the box.  Runs like a champ.

Re: KSFB has been Plugged!
« Reply #17 on: March 22, 2011, 10:12:12 AM »
thats great. I am probably going to have to send you some PMs to help me through the first set up since you probably went through some trying times i would like to avoid. haha :-D

Offline Biff

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Re: KSFB has been Plugged!
« Reply #18 on: March 26, 2011, 07:52:36 PM »
Welp, totally jinxed my server.  It's dead for the moment.   :x

I think it's a flash memory problem.  I don't know if it's salvageable or not.  Might have to go to plan B, and get the feed up on another machine while I mess with it.

Offline Biff

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Re: KSFB has been Plugged!
« Reply #19 on: March 27, 2011, 03:56:42 PM »
Had to re-flash the plug then remember how to get everything re-installed.

It's back up.  Fingers crossed it stays that way.  Worried I might have some bad flash memory.

Re: KSFB has been Plugged!
« Reply #20 on: March 27, 2011, 06:22:10 PM »
my 3 came in and im just waiting for the sound cards to get here they are in the mail... and 2 more radios also in the mail. hopefully for the end of the week so i can start playing around with them.

I was wondering if you might be able to send me some sort of step by step instructions so things run smooth the first time. if not i have a bit of  linux knowledge and can figure things out just thought i might be able to learn from your experience.

Offline derdude

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Re: KSFB has been Plugged!
« Reply #21 on: April 18, 2011, 11:30:41 AM »
Any chance the instuctions could be posted here on how you made yours work?
Thanks...

Offline smeuse

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Re: KSFB has been Plugged!
« Reply #22 on: April 18, 2011, 01:10:09 PM »
Has anyone played with the Dream Plug yet? I just got mine last week, haven't had much of a chance to do anything with it yet. The one thing I *did* notice was that the soundcard was not addressed as /dev/dsp, or maybe the /dev/dsp device is not created by default.

Otherwise it looks like a nice box for only 5 watts :)

http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/t-dreamplugdetails.aspx


Offline dave

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Re: KSFB has been Plugged!
« Reply #23 on: April 18, 2011, 01:40:19 PM »
In darkice.cfg try addressing it as 'default'

device = default

If that doesn't work let's talk offline.

I have a few different plugs - only one currently solid is the SheevaPlug.  The GuruPlugs have issues getting the right kernels on them (mainly because i haven't had time to hack on them).

The DreamPlug should be more straightforward and the fact that it has built-in audio is nice.  Since it is a mic input some attention will need to be paid to attenuating or strictly controlling the audio input level.



Offline Biff

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Re: KSFB has been Plugged!
« Reply #24 on: April 18, 2011, 04:48:29 PM »
Wow, that DreamPlug looks nice.  :)

My Sheeva's now been up 22 days since having to rebuild the thing.  Don't know if the flash memory got corrupted or what.  It's been running the feed for 6 months total now.